


The Meaning Of Loneliness

by joufancyhuh



Series: Young Gods [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: All-Origins Au, Dying Sibling, Gen, Mahariel Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 05:13:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14867273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joufancyhuh/pseuds/joufancyhuh
Summary: River Mahariel is threatened with being alone for the first time in his life.





	The Meaning Of Loneliness

**Author's Note:**

> And now for the Mahariel origin! In the game, it's implied Mahariel dies if Duncan doesn't come along. But in my head, I wanted to keep a Mahariel going. And well, this is how I came up with how to keep it canon and also get my OC.
> 
> Special thanks to my betas, Eradikater, Bardofheartdive, and MizDirected.

The black in her veins that identifies her sickness creeps through her shoulder blades; River spots the webs underneath her armor as she shirks it off for the night. Willow, ever the silent one, doesn’t complain, and it strikes River that he doesn’t know if it hurts. What sensation does she feel?

He doesn’t ask.

“Are you scared?” A question in place of the one he desperately wants to pose. He knows his answer; his twin sister—his only permanent fixture in the ever-shifting tides that came with living in a clan—wasting away with each passing sun. They are the Mahariels, two halves of one soul; he dare not imagine what happens when only one passes through the Veil. Alone is a foreign word, an accompaniment to the strange disease that no healer seems able to master. Only dread hides beneath its meaning, its cold breath sending shivers snaking down his back. 

Willow shakes her head before stopping to cough into a rag; blood stains the once bright cloth, all hers. “For our kind, this is an easy death, and I thank Falon’Din for that blessing.” Willow, as resilient as her namesake, stands strong to face even the god of death. River wonders how many of her words are for his benefit.

He laces up his boots to prepare for the night watch, but a familiar hand on his arm stills the action. She stares with sorrowful eyes, her other hand twisting at her dark hair the reflection of his own. 

“It’s not too late to catch up to them. They’ll take you back. The Keeper promised that.” 

She asks this of him every night, but he embodies his namesake with steady patience, his love for her flowing undeterred. 

“You are my clan now, sister. As you ever were.” 

She turns away, but not before he spots the tears glistening in the corners of her eyes, ones she wipes away in a hurry. 

When the sickness takes her, as it promises to do, River will begin his search for the other member of his small clan. Tamlen’s disappearance into the tainted mirror bodes ill, but River refuses to give up the hope his sister’s disease threatens to steal from him. Disappearing doesn’t mean dead, and River plans to prove that, to rebuild his clan, his family. 

River prays to Mythal for forgiveness and for strength as another coughing fit hits Willow so hard the wagon quakes.


End file.
